Albany Injury Lawyers

Citigroup

This post mentions Citigroup in passing. I've got a good personal injury case against one of the subsidiaries, Citifinancial.

Injury case -- the effect of bankruptcy

So I've got this personal injury case. It was a really good case. Defendant is clearly liable. Plaintiff is a sympathetic figure. Might have been worth 200K. I was moving the case along well.

As we got close to trial, I find out the defendant (a large corporation) filed for bankruptcy. That means a stay -- you have to wait while the bankruptcy process works itself out. Then they create this process for resolving tort claims. I go through the process.

Today I get an offer for under half of what the case is really worth. But wait, there's more. If we agree to a number, the client would become an unsecured creditor, which is the last place in line for the bankruptcy. We would get some percentage of the agreed amount, maybe as low as 10%.

I'm hopeful it is higher than 10%. I read the original filing - the corporation had more assets than liabilities. What the hell kind of bankruptcy is that? I know what kind it is. It's the "screw Warren and his clients" kind.

Okay, seriously, this is part of the life of a personal injury lawyer. I told my client about it and she was actually worried about me getting enough money out of this (I told you she was sympathetic). I explained that this was hopefully her only personal injury case, while I will have hundreds, perhaps thousands over my career.

Now this badly injured woman, who still hasn't completely recovered, is going to get squat while the corporate executives are probably getting 7-figure salaries.

And Congress reformed the bankruptcy laws applicable to regular people.

That's enough of that rant. The lesson here for personal injury lawyers (as if anyone actually reads my blog :-) ) is to move your cases before something takes the floor out from under them, and recognize that there's no sure things out there.

Great post on the business of taking a new case

Saw a great post on how a plaintiff's lawyer thinks about potential cases and whether or not to take them.

Mentioned tort reform in the previous post. Found a good post on tort reform from Judge Posner. Worth a read.

Personal Injury blog

Found a somewhat interesting personal injury blog. This particular post hits on some of my thoughts about so-called tort reform.

While I oppose many of the common tort reform proposals for such reasons, I have long advocated a far more significant tort reform approach. Under my approach, there would be no pain and suffering damages for ordinary negligence. I would do this only at the state level, as I think the federal government should keep its nose out of such things.

Why do I support this? Ordinary negligence includes things like driving 56 in a 55 mph zone - things we all do. I would require a higher standard for pain and suffering -- gross negligence. Driving 70 mph drunk in a school zone would qualify. One would still get lost wages and medical bills when injured by someone else's ordinary negligence.

This approach would eliminate 90+% of personal injury cases and cut insurance premiums by more than half. And that's why insurance companies don't want real tort reform.

And by the way, as a personal injury lawyer, I would lose a lot of money if my proposal were adopted. But we would live in a better society.

law firm websites

Saw an interesting post about free websites for lawyers. I'm going to give it a try.

Blog on brain injuries

Looking around the web, found an interesting blog on brain injuries.

Starting Albany Injury Lawyer blog

Figured I'd start up a new blog focusing on my personal injury practice. I have my Albany Lawyer blog on blogger, but I thought it might make sense to have a blog specifically for personal injury, and also to try out typepad.